When we first saw this auburn haired beauty, we really thought that she may not able to use her eyes again. That she has lost her eyesight permanently. But how wrong could we be? And how happy we are now for our fears not coming true? Yes, we are speaking about Yamuna, the cow that we rescued from the streets sometime back.

Where did we find her?

As with every other neglected animal, we found Yamuna on the streets trying to get the flies away from her infected eyes. There were maggots on the wound and we thought we will never be able to restore the eyesight of the animal. In fact we feared that she has lost her eyesight permanently and there might be even more infection than what we see.

She was suffering from extreme pain and she was not allowing anyone to approach her. And we wouldn’t blame her for she is entitled to feel so after days of neglect from the people around her. It took us some time to soothe her nerves and make her believe that we are going to help her.

The first day

Once we were able to soothe her nerves, we brought her immediately to our facility taking care not to hurt her eyes any further. To start with the maggots were removed from her eyes completely and a veterinarian attended to her immediately to see the severity of the infection and the extent of the wound. As prescribed by the doctor, she was immediately given the necessary antibiotics and medication to keep her from suffering more in pain.

What was more concerning was that the infection was starting to spread to her other eye when we fortunately found her. The kind soul which called us to inform of her situation really did in the nick of the moment, for another day lost would mean the infection would have spread to the other eye as well. It would have been even more difficult to treat both eyes.

The road to recovery

Yamuna was given proper nutrition to ensure that her body develops the necessary immunity to battle the infection and the disease infecting her eyes. We ensured that she was taken care of constantly with no dust or any other allergen reaching her eyes. By the end of 5th day, we could see quite a good progress with the eyes, the starting point of it being the reduction in the swelling around her eye.

While she was on the road to recovery, it required a lot of attention still and it was not easy to feed or treat her with medication. It was very tough and we could understand that she was annoyed at everything. But it was for her good and we did not have an option but to do what we can.

It was the 8th day since we had started the treatment and things were slowly progressing to the better. And slowly she was able to open her eyes and the eye was much more easily visible now than before to us. It was still a far way from recovery but we now knew that she is going to be better very soon.

By the end of two weeks she was pretty much to her normal self with the swelling completely gone and the infection highly reduced. And we continued the treatment giving her the required medication and the necessary nutrition for sustaining her health as she was recuperating.

However it was another week before we could breathe a sigh of relief for her recovery. It was by the end of three weeks when the eye started to look as close to normal as possible. The medication was slowly reduced and we knew it was only a matter of days before she will be her normal self too. She was cooperating now that there is nothing to give her pain and it was easy to nurture her back to health.

Complete recovery

By the end of 25 days, Yamuna was back on her legs, with both eyes looking as good as they can get. She didn’t lose her eyesight nor was her eyes infected permanently. We could not have been happier seeing her fully recovered. The person who contacted us to inform of her condition did so well in time. If the infection was even left for a couple of more days, then she would have completely lost her eyesight and there is no guarantee on what the infection would have done to her. In fact if left unattended, she might have even lost her life.

Eye care for bovines

Caring for bovines is very important, especially caring for their eyes. Cows depend on their eyes not just for vision but vision is what helps them with their life. There are many illnesses that attack cattle specifically on their eyes, the most common one being the “Pink eye”. But if treated with care and on time the cattle can be restored back to their original state in no time. Yamuna was an example to this statement and we are glad that we could play a role in her recovery.

To conclude

On the other hand, if the owner of the cattle had ensured proper care of Yamuna, then she wouldn’t be left in this state fending off flies in the first place. Fortunately for her, a kind soul took notice and informed us. But there are many more bovines in the country which suffer from such neglects leading them to their deaths. We worship our cows as a mother and it is shameful if we allow them to suffer as such. It should be our priority to ensure that they are as safe as they can be. A better animal health, means a better produce and therefore a better life for all of us!